Today, I attended a workshop offered by my local ROE about the Common Core Standards that will be affecting Illinois teachers in the upcoming years (currently set to be assessed beginning the 2014-2015 school year).

Common Core Curriculum Maps project HERE. View curriculum maps created by public school teachers, and aligned to the common core standards. Great starting place for incorporating the core into your lesson plans.

During the presentation by my local ROE, I was happy to see that Kelly Gallagher was strongly endorsed, as was his Article of the Week initiative. We watched a video clip of Gallagher talking about how the Article of the Week assignment came about (why he saw a need for it), and then we participated in a reading and "mark-up" of a sample article. Copies of Gallagher's book Readicide were also given away as attendance prizes.

MasteryConnect seems like a promising online program for tracking student assessment. It allows teachers to create student profiles, administer assessments, and track students progress. Best of all, teachers have access to pre-made assessments that align with their common core standards. Click on the link below and then watch the intro video. It does a great job of explaining how the program works, and--best of all---there is a free version!http://www.masteryconnect.com/learn-more/index.html

UPDATE: (8-19-11)Upon further inspection, Mastery Connect does not appear to come with pre-loaded assessments, but relies on members to share with one another. The last time that I checked, there were no assessments available for ninth grade Reading. However, I definitely see the potential value in this website; it just needs individuals to jump in, create and share.

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Jessica Pilgreen is a high school English teacher, a Piasa Bluffs Writing Project fellow, and a technology enthusiast. The main purpose of this blog is to help her keep track of all of the fabulous tools out there that she has encountered, but if she can help a few others along the way, that's good, too.